Green Legacy Hiroshima: Archived News

Status of 2014-15 Seed Collection

The 2014-2015 season seed collection had its highlight around the Ginkgo biloba survivor tree at Hiroshima's historical Shukkeien Garden on November. 2, 2014. A dozen volunteers -- Green Legacy Hiroshima core team and working group members from UNITAR, Hiroshima University, and Hiroshima Peace Culture Foundation -- gathered for the annual, productive activity. Seeds of Kurogane holly at Hiroshima Castle, and Camphor at Motomachi area were also collected on the same day.

On December 15, 2014, seed collection for the Persimmon, Japanese hackberry, and Kurogane holly survivor trees took place at Atago Pond and in Motomachi. Earlier in the season Jujube seeds had been collected from the mother tree on Peace Boulevard.

December 2015

Nakanoshima Elementary School, Tokushima, Japan

Someiyoshino sapling was planted in the schoolyard.

City of Granollers, Spain

In May 2012 Mayors for Peace had provided seeds to some conference participants in Vienna. The City of Granollers is one recipient of the seeds - by December 2015 around 15 seedlings (Ginkgo tree and Persimmon) growing at a private nursery there.

Bourbon Co., Ltd. Japan

November 2015

GLH 18th Working Group Meeting (November 27, 2015)

Rochester, Massachusetts, USA

November 2015: Ginkgo saplings in good health. However following advice of the Arnold Arboretum, planting originally scheduled for fall 2015 postponed to spring of 2016. In addition to Rochester, the saplings will be planted at Tufts University, the Arnold Arboretum, Avon and Saint Anselm College in New Hampshire.

Sarajevo City, Bosnia & Herzegovina

November 2015: Ginkgo sapling has grown 13-15cm since last year.

Yano Nishi Elementary School, Hiroshima, Japan

November 2015: Peace candle event was held alongside the Chinese parasol tree song.

October 2015

Nakanoshima Elementary School, Tokushima, Japan

October 2015: 6th graders from Nakanoshima Elementary School visited Hiroshima on their school excursion and after a lecture about A-bombed trees, took back a 2nd generation Someiyoshino, to be planted in their schoolyard in December.

Radlje of Dravi City, Slovenia

October 2015: Seeds, planted in May, have germinated.

Fredrikstad City, Department of Parks, Norway

October 2015: Seeds of Ginkgo and Jujube planted by Mayor and children.

Japanese Friendship Garden Society of San Diego

October, 2015: In a planting ceremony on October 2nd, sapling which had been delivered by Nassrine in July was planted in the garden grounds. Mr. Mike Kawamura, 2nd Vice President and originally from Hiroshima, gave a speech. The largest sapling, Camphor, is now named “Peace Tree.” Mr. Kawamura visited GLH office in Hiroshima on October 14.

Asian Health Institute, Japan

October 2015: A Chinese parasol sapling, delivered in 2012, did not survive. A new sapling was brought back to AHI by their international trainees.

Emden, Germany (report from Schwäbisch Gmünd, Germany)

A Ginkgo sapling presented by Mr. Wolfgang of Schwäbisch Gmünd to the Mayor of Emden, Mr. Bernd Bornemann, at a film event in the Emder Friedenstage.

Bourbon, Co., Niigata, Japan

October 2015: Ginkgo sapling growing and losing its leaves for the winter.

Switzerland

Municipality of Saint-Sulpice, Switzerland

October 2015: Ginkgo sapling delivered to the municipality of Sait-Suplice, to be planted on college grounds in the future.

ICRC, Switzerland

October 2015: Ginkgo sapling, planted in 2013, growing in good health.

September 2015

No Gun Ri City, South Korea

September 2015: Ginkgo sapling is growing, taller than 50cm.

Ypres City, Belgium

September 2015: The city had received the seeds from Mayors for Peace in May, 2012. Seedlings of Ginkgo and Camphor are growing in pots.

Kyoseian, Hiroshima, Japan

Cambodia

September 2015: Camphor sapling delivered to Kompong Speu Provincial Teacher Training Center in 2014 did not survive and a new sapling just sent.

Sapling at Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport, Kingdom of Cambodia, is growing in good health.

Afghanistan

September 2015: The Afghan National Women’s Football team visited Hiroshima under the auspices of UNITAR. In their many and extensive programs they also had a lecture on GLH and a walking tour of A-bombed trees.

Oberlin College, USA

September 2015: Tomoko visited Oberlin College with saplings of Ginkgo, Wisteria, and Chinese Parasol. GLH, Shansi, and Oberlin College signed an MOU, as part of a long-term cooperation.

August 2015

Frogn City, Norway

GLH 17th WG meeting (27 August, 2015)

Tver State University Botanical Garden, Russia

August 2015: For the second year, a "Day of Open Heart" was held. Another Ginkgo sapling, grown from seeds delivered in 2013, was planted in the garden with Japanese students studying Russian in Tver and Moscow.

Universidad Austral de Chile

August 2015: Held an exposition with the seedlings of Hiroshima A-bombed trees for 10 days, including a ceremony on the 6th with local authorities, members of UNESCO, INDH (National Institute of Human Rights) and Japanese Embassy at the "Casa Museo Santa Rosa de Apoquindo", in Santiago.

Ritsumeikan Asia-Pacific University and Hiroshima University

City of New Haven Peace Commission, CN, USA

August 2015: One of the Ginkgo saplings, which have been grown in Rochester under the care of Mr. MaCue, has been assigned to New Haven.

July 2015

Japanese Friendship Garden Society of San Diego, USA

July 2015: Seedlings of Ginkgo, Wisteria, Chinese parasol and Camphor were delivered. Hiroshima saplings settling in their new home under watch of Japanese Friendship Garden's David Brazier

Vilnius University Botanical Garden, Lithuania

July 2015: Ginkgo biloba seedlings (grown from seeds) are growing healthily in Vilnius University Botanical garden. At the moment they are about 30 cm high and starting adaptation to Lithuanian climate (relocated for this aim into outdoor bed).

Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden, The Republic of South Africa

July 2015: all four species have germinated exceptionally well and are all thriving in the glasshouses at Kirstenbosch. Ilex rotunda and Cinnamomum camphora already exceed 2m in height. All four species will be planted out in the ground in a specially prepared site within Kirstenbosch this coming spring (September 2015).

University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), USA

May 2015

May 24, 2015: To commemorate the creation of new A-bombed tree plaques, a special event to learn more about the trees, and to install the new plaques on each tree was held. More than 140 citizens, from elementary school children to people in their 80s’, joined the event. Mayor Matsui installed the new plaques on the Chinese parasol in Peace Memorial Park.

February 2015

GLH 15th WG meeting (27 February, 2015)

83rd UNITAR Public Session: Green Legacy Hiroshima – A Heritage for the Future

25 February 2015, Hiroshima, Japan - Green Legacy Hiroshima (GLH), co-founded as a voluntary initiative in July 2011 and institutionally supported by UNITAR, ANT-Hiroshima, as well as other local institutions, has the objective to safeguard and spread worldwide the seeds and saplings of Hiroshima’s A-bomb survivor trees. It now has established partnerships in more than 25 countries.

In December 2014, GLH was registered as a Future Heritage Project (Mirai-Isan) by the National Federation of UNESCO Associations in Japan. The UNITAR Public Session will therefore be dedicated to a special award ceremony, marking this nomination.

In December 2014, Green Legacy Hiroshima was registered as a Future Heritage Project (Mirai-Isan) by the National Federation of UNESCO Associations in Japan. The award is given each year to selected projects, that meet the Future Heritage requirements. The 2015 UNITAR Public Session for Green Legacy Hiroshima was therefore dedicated to a special ceremony marking this nomination. The Secretary-General of the Japan UNESCO Association, Mr. Noboru Noguchi, alongside members of the UNESCO Japan secretariat came from Tokyo for the ceremony. It was a full-house event, with the Ran conference room at the Peace Memorial International Center full to capacity.

The official UNESCO award was handed by the Secretary-General to GLH co-founders, Nassrine Azimi and Tomoko Watanabe.

After the welcome message by the head of the Hiroshima Office Mihoko Kumamoto and a statement by the Mayor of Hiroshima Kazumi Matsui, an introductory video on GLH was presented. Master gardener Chikara Horiguchi and GLH working group member, the architect Akio Nishikiori, made short presentations on the history of Hiroshima's revival. The official UNESCO award was handed by the Secretary-General to GLH co-founders, Nassrine Azimi and Tomoko Watanabe. Professor Kosaku Maeda, a prominent scholar of the Silk Road and cultural heritage, gave the superb keynote speech, making a passionate plea for the preservation of humanity's cultural heritage and emphasizing the relevance of Hiroshima's A-bomb survivor trees in this context.

4 March 2014, Hiroshima, Japan - Green Legacy Hiroshima, the global Initiative supported by UNITAR, the NGO ANT-Hiroshima and a host of local and global partners, which was co-founded by UNITAR's senior advisor Nassrine Azimi and ANT executive director Tomoko Watanabe, has won the prize awarded by the Hiroshima Peace Creative Fund. The award ceremony took place in Hiroshima on 3 March 2014.

Since 1994, when Hiroshima hosted the Asian Games, many groups and individuals have developed international exchanges to encourage mutual understanding and long-lasting friendships.

The prize started as part of the activities of the Hiroshima International Culture Foundation in 1998, and was succeeded since 2012 by the Hiroshima Peace Creative Fund. Two other groups - the Hiroshima Volunteer Interpreters and SALAM, a women's group assisting Palestinian counterparts, also won awards.

October 23, 2013 - The UNITAR Hiroshima Office, in collaboration with ANT-Hiroshima, recently held a Public Session that examined the continued efforts of Green Legacy Hiroshima to spread worldwide seeds and saplings of Hiroshima’s A-Bomb survivor trees. The Public Session served as an opportunity to reflect on the deeper meaning and message of A-bomb survivor trees, and was attended by more than 100 representatives of the wider Hiroshima community.

Green Legacy Hiroshima was established in July 2011. It aims to work with many diverse people and communities – those striving for a world free from nuclear threats, those committed to a greener planet, those hoping to honor and remember victims of wars past and present, or those simply wanting to create peace gardens in their communities. Launched as a volunteer initiative a few months after the catastrophic 2011 Tohoku Region earthquake, tsunami and nuclear accident, and with institutional support by UNITAR and ANT-Hiroshima, Green Legacy Hiroshima has quickly found resonance among a wide range of individuals and institutions in Hiroshima and around the world: seeds or saplings of the A-Bomb survivor trees now grow in about 20 countries.

The Public Session opened with a presentation by Nassrine Azimi, UNITAR Senior Advisor, examining the vision and action of Green Legacy Hiroshima to date, including an outline of some of the countries to which seeds and saplings have successfully been sent. This was followed by Mr. Chikara Horiguchi, Arborist, outlining the specific genus of the survivor trees, and the methods of their propagation. Noted Hiroshima Architect and Atomic-bomb Survivor, Mr. Akio Nishikori then examined Hiroshima’s recovery and the formation of urban beauty.

Professor Masakazu Suzuki, of Tsukuba University, followed with an outline of his research into the trees themselves, in particular the fact that some 80% of survivor trees with a single trunk lean toward the hypocenter. Professor Suzuki proposes that this is due to the fact that cells on the side of the trunk facing the hypocenter were damaged by the bomb’s heat rays and radiation, making the exposed side grow more slowly than the other. A question and answer period concluded the Public Session.

The Public Session (held on 23 October 2013), was covered by the Chugoku Shimbun newspaper in a number of articles in Japanese (1, 2) and English.

First in the 2013-2014 seed-picking season – the Jujube!

19 September 2013 - The Jujube tree (Ziziphus jujuba) on Peace Boulevard offered the first bounty of the GLH seed-picking season this year. Thanks to botanical advisors Horiguchi san and Sera san, new efforts to have seeds germinate have started (last year we were not successful!).

GLH started its third year, now accompanied by partners in some 20 countries.

Sally Fegan-Wyles, Executive Director of UNITAR visited some of the survivor trees.

On Saturday 27 April 2013 Sally Fegan-Wyles, Executive Director of UNITAR, accompanied by the Green Legacy Hiroshima team, visited some of the survivor trees. Mr. Yasuyoshi Komizo, Chairperson of the Hiroshima Peace Culture Foundation and Mr. Akio Nishikiori, President of the Hiroshima Architects Association - both members of the Green Legacy Hiroshima Working Group -- joined the tour on a beautiful sunny day. The visit took the group to the memorial of Dr. Marcel Junod, head of the ICRC delegation at the time of the atomic bombing, and a well-loved, renowned figure in Hiroshima. For this occasion, a second-generation Gingko biloba sapling, destined to be planted on the ICRC grounds at its headquarters in Geneva, was handed over to the UNITAR delegation. Thanks to Sally and Alex Mejia, the sapling has now arrived safely in the hands of the gardeners at ICRC headquarters, and will be planted this year in a special ceremony marking 6 August.

Visit to Hiroshima by Deputy Director of Irkutsk Botanical Gardens,

The 67th anniversary of the world's first atomic bomb attack in Hiroshima in 1945

On 6 August 2012, the day of the 67th anniversary of the world's first atomic bomb attack in Hiroshima in 1945, UNITAR and the new entity representing Green Legacy Hiroshima Initiative finalized a Memorandum of Understanding that will build upon the work undertaken over the past year during the pilot phase for three additional years. Click for More

To mark the visit of the UNITAR Executive Director Dr. Carlos Lopes, H.E. Mayor Matsui and the Green Legacy Working Group gathered for a tree-planting ceremony on 30 March 2012. On the occassion, a stone memorial was also dedicated by Dr. Lopes. Children from the chorus "I Pray" offered a musical performance in honour of the event.